RE: draft of HTML to Platform Accessibility API mapping table

I put the aria mapping in this doc to be consistent with Steve's spec text.  I also find it useful to have it there as a reference while creating and discussing the API mappings.  I'm flexible on having it in the final version of this do, though I personall find it easier to have it all in one place.

From: public-html-a11y-request@w3.org [mailto:public-html-a11y-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Steven Faulkner
Sent: Friday, June 25, 2010 3:01 AM
To: David Bolter
Cc: Cynthia Shelly; HTML Accessibility Task Force
Subject: Re: draft of HTML to Platform Accessibility API mapping table

Hi dave,
>To be clear, no one is suggesting the browser will itself automatically add aria attributes to the DOM right?

the current spec text [http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/embedded-content-0.html#annotations-for-assistive-technology-products-aria] states:

"User agents are required to implement ARIA semantics on all HTML elements<http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/infrastructure.html#html-elements>, as defined in the ARIA specifications. The implicit ARIA semantics defined below must be recognized by implementations. [ARIAIMPL]<http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/references.html#refsARIAIMPL>"

This has been added without change to the new spec text.

The second sentence though ambiguous, could suggest that the stated implicit semantics are to be exposed via the DOM.

Can you provide text which clearly states what you think browsers should do? we can then replace the current text.

Also I know you are v busy but please take the time to review the proposal: http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/misc/HTML5/aria-html5-proposal.html
your review and feedback is valued!

regards
steve
On 25 June 2010 02:21, David Bolter <david.bolter@gmail.com<mailto:david.bolter@gmail.com>> wrote:
Hi Cynthia,

Sorry for the delay in proofing this; and I probably don't have the right context for this document but I'd like clarification on why ARIA is included as a mapping here. As we know, ARIA is quite a different animal than desktop accessibility API. I worry that including it among MSAA etc. is going to cause confusion to readers. The concept of mapping to ARIA from HTML is presumably included for DOM based AT (which don't really exist yet), but DOM based AT could do this mapping themselves as they see fit right? I mean if the semantics are already there in the HTML element, why map to ARIA? ARIA was invented purely to override the HTML semantics for cases where the HTML semantics are broken visually (overridden) by DHTML techniques.

To be clear, no one is suggesting the browser will itself automatically add aria attributes to the DOM right?

cheers,
David


On 24/06/10 9:58 AM, Cynthia Shelly wrote:
Here's a draft of the HTML element to Platform Accessibility API mappings.  It would be great if we could discuss that at next week's mapping sub-team meeting.






--
with regards

Steve Faulkner
Technical Director - TPG Europe
Director - Web Accessibility Tools Consortium

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